Crystal Palace kick-off their Premier League 2024/25 season when they take on Thomas Frank's Brentford on Sunday afternoon (18 August 2024).
The Eagles will be competing in their 12th consecutive season in the top flight of English football, and will hope to build upon the resurgence shown under Oliver Glasner at the end of last season.
Under the Austrian manager, Palace were unbeaten in their final seven games, winning six of them, and Glasner shared his delight to get the new campaign underway, citing "seven week's pre-season is enough and now we're really pleased that the Premier League starts".
However, Glasner insisted that his side must not get overcome by optimism and expectations, and instead should look to focus on ensuring the Eagles perform right now.
"I'm not talking about what will be at the end of May. It's still August. There are many months to go and it makes no sense now talking about the final place at the end of the Premier League."
"It's important to focus on today, what we want to do on the pitch, how we play, how we want to show our identity, our personality, our belief in every single game. Then at the end we will see what the outcome is".
This will begin with a test in East London at Gtech Community Stadium, against a tough Brentford side looking to begin their own campaign with a flourish.
Glasner faced questions from the media on Friday afternoon, discussing team news, pre-season preparations, the importance of youth development, and the quality his side possess.
Here are the main takeaways from his press conference:
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Team News
Glasner began his press conference discussing the availability of his squad, and their relative fitness, declaring he had the entire squad to select from except Matheus Franca, who is recovering from a broken rib, "all players are fit, all players are available - just Franca (is not)".
Providing further details on the Brazilian forward's injury, Glasner stated: "After his injury, he trained with us, and unfortunately he fractured his rib again so he will be out for the next few weeks."
A host of the Palace squad has been linked with moves away from SE25, and Glasner was quick to address the speculation surrounding Selhurst Park and whether it would affect selection of his matchday squad.
"I'm very close to all the players, so we are talking almost every day and as long as nobody tells me, 'hey gaffer I will leave', or the club tells me this player will leave, we will work with them every day, and we prepare the team so that we are competitive for a Premier League game. At the moment it is: every single player will play at Brentford."
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Pre-season Preparations
It was a summer of second places for many of the Palace squad.
Adam Wharton, Dean Henderson, Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi were part of the England side that went so agonisingly close at Euro 2024.
Colombian duo Daniel Munoz and Jefferson Lerma were bested in the final of the 2024 Copa America, whilst Jean-Philippe Mateta had to settle for a Silver Medal at Paris 2024.
Whilst it is a tremendous achievement for a club like Palace to be so vastly represented on the global stage, it has meant the fitness of members of the squad is not one hundred percent as the new season approaches, and with several players arriving to pre-season at later dates, preparations have been disrupted.
Glasner acknowledged, "yes, it was a tricky pre-season because we had many players with their national teams: at the Euros in the Final, at the Copa America in the Final, at the Olympics in the Final."
"We have the players on different fitness levels, but we have a great mood on the pitch, we have a great mood in the dressing room and I'm very confident that we are ready for the start at Brentford."
This may mean that Glasner opts to utilise different players within the squad ahead of the season opener, but he remained confident they would soon get up to speed, and would help contribute to a Palace side looking to take the league by storm.
“Within the next weeks they will be there, and we have a great group. We had a very good pre-season, all the players were fit during the pre-season, all the players are fit now. We are all looking forward to the start of the Premier League."
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Development of Youth Players
The Eagles fans have been spoiled with scintillating academy prospects over the years, with the likes of Wilfried Zaha, Victor Moses and Nathaniel Clyne all coming through the Palace youth system. With several youth players featuring during pre-season, Glasner was asked on how he views Palace's up and coming stars.
"It's always the same. For me, for us, it doesn't matter if a player is 17 or 37, at the end it is who helps the team win a game. And yes, everybody gets our support from the whole staff here"
“We had many players training with us during pre-season, they were with us on the USA trip and they showed good performances. But we also could see that there's some need to develop to play."
The Austrian manager continued, citing the levels of consistency that needs to be demonstrated, as the Palace academy players look to build their budding careers: "it's easy to show it once, a one-hit wonder, but being successful over, let's say in the Premier League, 38 games, perform over 38 games, this is the level that we all demand from our players."
“Therefore, we support our youth players, so that they will be ready. Maybe it's now, maybe it's in half a year, or maybe it's in two years. This is how we work with them.”
One youth prospect who will not be featuring for the South London club is Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, after the promising attacker sealed his loan move to Sheffield United.
"It's maybe tough for him to get the minutes he deserves and the minutes he needs to develop his game and to develop his personality. We were sitting together and said, ‘maybe the best situation for you, for yourself, is to go on loan’ and he had this opportunity now with Sheffield (United).
Rak-Sakyi has previously had a loan spell at Charlton in the 2022/23 season, where the winger provided 25 goal contributions in 50 appearances.
After returning to Palace last season, Rak-Sakyi had an injury-hit campaign, which meant the the highly rated 21-year-old was often on the fringes of the squad, and hopefully the loan move will thrust Rak-Sakyi into the future plans at Selhurst Park.
“We are wishing him all the best there, that he gets the minutes, he develops, and then he comes back on the next level and he will be ready for Crystal Palace.”
